About 100 people dressed up as dinosaurs ran footraces on Sunday at a snow-covered park in northern Japan.

The event in Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture, was aimed at cheering up the local community during the cold winter season. But some participants came from as far away as Tokyo, hundreds of kilometers distant.

The races were divided into six categories, including a "cub division" for elementary school children, and a "young beast division" for people in their teens to their 30s.

After some warm-up exercises, the mock dinos sprinted over a 50-meter course. Some became bogged down in the snow.

One man said it felt good to run as a dinosaur and that he had fun.

Another said it was his first time dressing up as a dinosaur. He said he slipped and fell in the slush, and that he will try to do better next time.